Junior point guard Tobias Ray passes his basketball improv test with crafty play at the end of the third quarter of Chesterton’s 66-53 win over Merrillville

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Executing plays that beat buzzers at the end of quarters as well as in-bounds plays have been among the greatest strengths of this year’s Chesterton basketball team.
But sometimes, even the best-laid plans go awry and that’s when improvisational skills are tested.
Trojans junior point guard Tobias Ray aced his improv test for the final bucket of the third quarter in a game Chesterton would win, 66-53, Friday night in a sectional semifinal.
Ray was inbounding the ball from under the hoop that Merrillville defended. Nobody was open and he had only five seconds to get the ball in.
So, he threw it off the back of a Merrillville player, caught it, shot it, made it, was fouled and made the free throw for a three-point play that gave the Trojans a 48-33 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
“I’d like to say that was a play I designed, but no, he totally read it,” Chesterton coach Marc Urban said. “It was a very heady play and he’s a heady kid. I thought he played terrific tonight. I thought he handled the pressure. I thought he defended well and he makes really good reads with the basketball. He was really good tonight.”
Ray had a quick, physical defender or two trying to steal the ball from him all night and stood up to the heat well.
Ray was at his most creative on the play in which he scored three of his five points, the other two coming at the line in the fourth quarter.
“In our out-of-bounds play, we always want to score on it,” Ray said. “As Urban says, it’s like special teams. You always want to win that category. There have been a couple of times this year where the play hasn’t been there because they take it away or there’s a slip. I always like to see, ‘OK, what is the defense looking like?’”
What he saw dictated what he did.
“I saw all those guys’ backs turned and one of our plays was to get it to Bradly (Basila) for an open layup,” Ray said. “Well, they all took Bradly away, and the guy had his back turned and I didn’t want to get a five-second call, so I threw it off him.”
Ray knew going into the game that the unusually hot gym was not going to be the only heat he would have to withstand.
“They’re very scrappy and they’re very good at getting into you, so playing Portage kind of prepped us because they’re quick and fast, too,” he said. “Being with each other and being so connected helps. And it being so hot outside we had to hydrate. We had Gatorade in there which is nice, but also tons of water all day.”
A starter since his freshman year and the point guard starting in his sophomore season, Ray has had an efficient season. He entered the game with a .614 2-point percentage, a .481 3-point percentage and a 2.8 assists-to-turnover ratio, making him a major contributor on a 21-4 team that takes a seven-game winning streak into today’s sectional final vs. visiting Valparaiso, a 6 p.m. tipoff.